Getting cargo into and out of vehicle storage areas is an age-old dilemma for vehicle owners. Bulky cargo is difficult to maneuver into the storage area and difficult to position once inside the storage area. Similarly, heavy cargo can be difficult to lift from ground level to a lip of the storage area, and is often at least as difficult to lower onto the floor of the storage area. Further difficulty can be encountered when removing bulky or heavy cargo from the storage area.
In order to overcome and alleviate some of the issues in this area, the prior art discloses several mechanisms for raising and lowering a floor within a storage area such as the trunk of an automobile. One example of the prior art includes the lifting mechanism described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,969,793 to Pawl. The mechanism includes a power-operated lift that is adapted to be mounted over a wheel well covering a portion of an automobile trunk. The lift has linkages for raising or lowering a load-supporting floor with respect to the trunk floor in a vertical direction. The load-supporting floor can also be manually moved in a horizontal direction in order to remove the load from the trunk and pivoted about the attached supporting frame when the load-supporting floor is positioned on the trunk floor. Pivoting the load-supporting floor in this manner provides access to the wheel well portion of the trunk floor positioned beneath the load-supporting floor.
While the prior art lift mechanisms are sufficient to provide assistance with loading and unloading cargo into an automobile's storage area and providing access to the wheel well including the spare tire and related tools, specific vehicle designs demand even more functionality from such mechanisms. With the advent of utility vehicles, such as sport utility vehicles and crossover utility vehicles, for example, the footprint of the area available for storage has decreased when compared to the more traditional automobile storage areas. The smaller footprint is created primarily by the narrowing of the storage area from the rear of the utility vehicles inward in order to accommodate additional passenger space within the vehicle (e.g., third row seating). In order to maintain a sufficient square footage for cargo storage, the storage areas are necessarily deeper from top to bottom than previous storage areas.
As a result, the storage area designs of utility vehicles generally result in the stacking of belongings and, more importantly, placing an initial layer of belongings on a floor of the storage area which is often below the upper lip of an access area adjacent a rear lift gate. Depending on the platform on which the utility vehicle is built, the floor of the storage area where the initial layer of belongings are placed may be significantly below the upper lip creating even greater challenges when loading heavy and/or bulky cargo and unloading same.
Given the size limitations of utility vehicle storage areas, modern lift mechanisms should be designed to maximize the storage area footprint by covering a maximum portion of the footprint with a load-supporting floor instead of a central portion of the storage area as shown in the Pawl patent. Utilization of substantially the entirety of the storage area floor, however, results in limited access within the cargo area for service or access to a spare tire compartment and further limits the available storage area. In today's sports utility and crossover utility vehicles, it is therefore desirable for the load-supporting floor of the lift mechanism to be removable from the vehicle.
Removing the floor provides greater ease of access to wiring for vehicle lights, power outlets, and speakers, for example, which are often positioned within or are directly adjacent the storage area of utility vehicles and often require access for service. Even more, although the floor can be pivoted to provide access to a spare time compartment, some customers prefer to remove the load-supporting floor to access the spare time and related tools instead of finessing the spare tire out from underneath the pivoted floor and over the elevated access lip of the storage area. This is particularly the case in utility vehicles with a lowered storage area floor. Still, other customers desire to simply remove the load-supporting floor to gain additional cargo storage volume when required.
This document relates to a lift assembly for a utility vehicle storage area that provides a floor capable of raising and lowering cargo within the storage area. Even more, the lift assembly utilizes rollers to create a pivot point around which the floor pivots to allow access to a wheel well and spare time. Utilizing the rollers in this manner allows the floor to be removed when desired simply by lifting the floor from the storage area. Advantageously, this allows for the floor to be separated from the lift assembly and completely removed from the utility vehicle when desired. This removal provides easier access to the spare tire compartment within the storage area and allows for easier access to underlying wiring and systems within the vehicle for service.